Italy Cruise Ship

Italy Cruise Ship, The inquiry into the capsizing of the Italian cruise ship Costa Concordia in January moves into a new stage on Saturday. A panel of experts made up of two naval experts and two academics will take possession of all the evidence gathered, including the ship’s voice recorder.

Seventeen people were killed and 15 are missing and presumed dead in the accident, when the cruise ship struck rocks off the Italian island of Giglio on Jan. 13 and began taking on water. The 289-metre-long vessel remains listing on its side.

The pre-trial hearing is being held inside a theatre in the Tuscan town of Grosseto. The theatre can seat more than 1,000 people but the hearings will not be open to the public or journalists.

Evidence collected will be handed over to a panel of court-appointed experts. They’re expected to spent months sifting through it to establish exactly out what happened in the vessel’s disastrous final moments.

Francesco Verusio, the prosecutor leading the Italian investigation, says it could take experts three months toanlyze the ship’s voice recorder.

Francesco Schettino, the ship’s captain, will not be attending the hearing, his lawyer says. Schettino remains under house arrest in Meta di Sorrento, his hometown near Naples in southern Italy, on charges of causing a shipwreck, manslaughter and abandoning ship.